For as long as most fans of the book can remember, there have been endless rumors about Stephen King’s The Stand being developed into a major motion picture by Warner Bros. At one point in the 80s, George Romero was attached to direct and last year that honor went to Ben Affleck, at least until he instead signed on to play Batman in the Man of Steel sequel. There were plenty of other directors attached in between, but The Stand always seemed destined to remain a 1994 ABC miniseries that really didn’t do the novel much justice.

But now, as if there’s an annual alarm clock that reminds Hollywood to get our hopes up about certain titles, Josh Boone (above) has dropped a very juicy tidbit about The Standin a recent interview with Vulture. The director of The Fault in Our Stars is currently attached to direct The Stand, and he told Gilbert Cruz that this sucker is going to be huge in scope like a Marvel movie.

So I’m a big Stephen King fan, and I know you’re a gigantic Stephen King fan, so I have to ask about The Stand. You’re directing it. What can you tell me about it?

We’re gonna do one three-hour, R-rated version with an amazing A-list cast across the board. Every single one of those characters will be somebody you recognize and somebody you relate to. And it’s gonna be awesome. I’m really excited. It’s the most exciting thing I’ve ever got to do in my entire life. If 12-year-old me had ever known that one day I’d be doing this, to even just go back and look at that kid, I’d be like, Keep doing what you’re doing! It’s just crazy. I’ve met so many actors over the years, and like, when I met Stephen King, I hugged him with tears in my eyes. He meant that much to me when I was young. I still say everything I learned about writing I learned from Stephen King. I don’t read screenplays. I don’t read screenplay how-to books. It’s always just, establish the character. Establish the character. (Via Vulture)

Obviously, yes please. But news like this only serves two purposes these days: 1) *click, click, click, click, CHA-CHING!* and 2) to eventually crush our already pulverized hopes for this movie. But even if Boone only ends up bursting our bubbles, there’s a good chance that it’ll be as creepy and gross as the bathroom scene in It.

This. The only way to do a dense story like the Stand (and the others) justice is with a lot of hours, ie the Band of Brothers treatment. Otherwise you’re just cutting too much. Even 3 hours…. I can’t imagine fitting even a reasonable fraction of the Stand into that.

My wife and I just had a discussion about the potential cast (Tom cruise = The Kid) for the last hour. We got stuck on Larry Underwood, then out of nowhere she said the most hurtful thing I have ever heard in my married life.